It’s a barrier women have never broken. Can Faith Kipyegon make mile history?

Last winter, a study surprised the world of running when a team of researchers concluded that, in the right circumstances, the Kenyane superstar Faith Kipyegon could break the thought of the impossible barrier – becoming the first woman to run 1 mile in less than four minutes.

In the coming days, under a world projector, this theory will be put to the test.

Thursday, Kipyegon will line up in Paris in a race sponsored by Nike called Breaking4, only four laps – and 1,609 meters, to be exact – in history.

If there was a runner to make such an attempt, it would be Kipyegon, 31 years old. Treo-time Olympic gold medalist in 1,500 meters, which holds the world record in 1,500 meters and also held the record at 5,000 meters, it also got closer to the four-minute barrier than anyone. In 2023, the race in Monaco, Kipyegon broke the previous world record for the Mile by operating 4: 07.64.

“It really stretches your imagination and acceptance of how women can excel in sport,” said Rodger Kram, an aggregated emeritus professor at the University of Colorado who co-wrote the study published in February in the Royal Society of Open Science.

However, speed alone will not constitute the difference of 7.64 seconds between his best staff and a barrier realization – a life in a race as short as the Mile. The great variable is the way Kipyegon “will write” exactly the rhythms around her, thus reducing her aerodynamic trail. How many pacers Nike will use and what training they will use, remains a mystery.

Kipyegon told the Associated Press that “Breaking Four will really cement my heritage”. However, the four -minute rupture could lead to a broader effect. Half-marathons and marathons have experienced a boom in post-pandemic participation, but Kram wonders if the example of Kipyegon could inspire more women to browse the intermediate distances.

“To see this, one, we actually want to go after a female record, it’s exciting,” said Shalaya Kipp, a former Olympic runner and NCAA champion who co-written the study. “It will not only attract more women in sport, but it will also draw more attention to the physiology of women and do more research on women as well.

“It is not the runner in me, but it is the scientist in me who is really excited if we have that. Scientists will start working with more female athletes, and it is a big gap that we have at the moment,” added Kipp.

As experts in physiology and kinesiology, Kram, Kipp and the co-authors of their study, Edson Soares Da Silva and Wouter Hoogkamer, were already fans of running. But their quest to know if a woman of less than four miles was possible started seriously in 2023 while watching Kipyegon execute her world record 4:07 while using Pacers only for half the race.

“He really marked us that it was a very fast race – a world record, of course – but she had a terrible writing,” Kipp, postdoctoral researcher at Mayo Clinic, told. “We are Nerds, and we looked at this, and we say to ourselves:” Well, and if? ” What if? And then we said to ourselves: “We could do this mathematics”. »»

The results below the eighty have been modeled on a scenario in which Kipyegon would write a team of entirely female pacers, in part for the revolutionary symbolism it would represent, Kipp said. In this scenario, the study revealed that if Kipyegon could remain less than 40 inches behind a rhythm in front of it, and 40 inches in front of another behind it – with a new team of rhythm exchanging halfway – it would create an aerodynamic “pocket” in which it would face the slightest wind resistance.

Under these conditions, Kipyegon could operate 3: 59.37, the newspaper concluded – the exact time managed by Roger Bannister in 1954 while, using Pacers for more than 80% of the race, became the first person to break the barrier less than four.

Less recalled is that in 1954, Diane Leather became the first woman to break the five -minute barrier from the Mile. It took more than half a century at the idea of ​​a woman who directs a mile of less than four to enter the field of possibility, however, because training, times and technology have all improved.

A inflection point arrived in 2016.

That year, Nike became the first shoe company to combine an exceptionally bouncing foam with rigid “plates” in its shoes and tips. Studies have determined such “supershoes” require less effort to operate at a given rate by absorbing the impact of each foot strike, allowing runners to bounce more quickly. The breakthrough led Nike to design a different moon shooting race, nicknamed “Breaking2”, in which the Kenyan superstar Eliud Kipchoge tried to become the first person to run a marathon in less than two hours. He failed at 25 seconds in his first try in 2017. In his second attempt, three years later, Kipchoge ran 1: 59.40. Times did not count as an official world record because the carefully personalized attempt did not meet the standards of the world director of sport, but it represented a seismic change in what was possible.

It was also a sign of things to come.

“We opened the 2016 valves,” said Kipp, “and we saw these times fall.”

Of the fastest 50 miles directed by women of all time, 33 have been directed since 2016, including 10 of the first 11. The world record of 4: 12.56 took place since 1996 until Sifan Hassan ran 0.23 seconds faster in 2019. Four years later, Kipyegon broke the Hassan World Record by a 4.69 -second dizzy in Monaco.

In Paris this week, Kipyegon will wear tailor-made Nike Supershoe tips as well as a speed combination and a personalized bra designed to reduce the drag. Kipyegon is unique in that her stride appears effortlessly, as if she floated, said Kipp. However, what matters most, said Kram and Kipp, is whether Kipyegon improved to stay hidden behind his pacers.

Nike did not consult Kram, Kipp or their research team on the technical details of the attempted Kipyegon. The way the giant of sports clothes will manage the number and sex of the Pacers has led to a significant plot. The stadiums hosting professional meetings have a metallic “rail” inside the first track, separating the track from the inner field. Because the Paris stadium charlete has little rubberized track surface inside the rail, it is unlikely that it has the space necessary to use the type of “complete arrow tip” training that he used in his attempt to help kipchoge to break two hours in the marathon. Kram wonders if Nike will use an “half-arrow-point” or perhaps even the model that the researchers have studied, with a front and a behind.

He and Kipp will also ensure how Kipyegon and his pacers line up at the beginning; As she appears relaxed while pushing an unprecedented rhythm; And, approaching the finish, when the pacers unlock to allow Kipyegon to end alone.

“I’m going to watch to make sure she’s in the pocket and that the pacers are not too excited,” said Kram. “In the first 200 [meters] You can ruin your chances for the mile. If she goes out and runs 27 [seconds]She is cooked. She must go out in 29, 29-Haut.

“If she goes through 1,200 in three minutes, I think she will get it. Other people say:” Oh, that’s when she will die. “But I believe in our figures and our calculations.”

Kipchoge and its training partners wore t-shirts with “Breaking4” and the image of Kipyegon during the training recently.

“It’s an honor for us to support [Kipyegon] While she is preparing to achieve the unthinkable and to break the barriers of human performance, “wrote Kipchoge on Instagram.” Faith is a real inspiration for our world. If there is one person to do it, it’s you. Go for it!”

The race also arrives at an important time for Nike himself. The roots of the company are being executed – it was founded by an intermediate runner, Phil Knight, and his college trainer – and more runners finished the races at 2024 bearing the brand than any other, according to a group survey of industry. In recent years, however, the Nike shelving space and the market share among racing shoes have been disputed by newcomers such as Hoka and ON. The attempt less than four from Kipyegon will come the same day that Nike should host a quarterly call.

In the days preceding Kipyegon’s race, Kram admitted to having nerves on how the study results would get out of it in a real test. Many of his previous studies had received little attention from the wider public, he said. The lower February document, compared, had drawn global attention.

“Even if we do not descend below four, how far is it just to have this attempt?” Said Kipp. “Is it really going to be a failure if it runs, you know, 4:01, 4:02? It will always be a big problem.”

“This is how the first sub-of the Eliud Kipchoge [marathon] The attempt was. It was not perfect, but it dropped the standard, and it made us realize that if we can get closer, we can do it. »»